Police Brutality & Killings

4WardEver UK

Mark Duggan shooting report challenged by human rights groups

Carole Duggan & Nephew, Mark Duggan
Carole Duggan & Nephew, Mark Duggan

originally by: The Guardian
published: 5 December 2019

The official report into the police shooting of a man whose death sparked the 2011 riots is facing a new challenge from human rights investigators who say a virtual model of the shooting shows its main conclusion is wrong.

The shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, in Tottenham, north London, in August 2011, triggered the biggest riots in modern English history.

An investigation by the police watchdog found he was most likely shot while holding a gun that he was probably “in the process of throwing” away.

An illegal firearm was found over a fence and 14 feet (4.35 metres) from where Duggan fell. None of the police officers surrounding him saw it flying through the air.

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4WardEver UK

Expungement request denied for ex-cop in Rekia Boyd case

Rekia Boyd
Rekia Boyd

source: WTTW News
published: 19 November 2019

Family and supporters of Rekia Boyd erupted into applause inside a Cook County courtroom Tuesday after a judge denied a request from Dante Servin, the former Chicago police detective who was charged and acquitted in her killing, to expunge any record of his criminal case from the public’s view.

In announcing his decision Tuesday, Judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr. said that just because Servin was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, that “does not make one innocent.” He based his ruling on the evidence prosecutors presented in the case in 2015, and the fact that the trial judge felt those facts better aligned with first-degree murder.

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4WardEver UK

‘Our brother shouldn’t have died like this,’ say Sheku Bayoh’s family

Sheku Bayoh
Sheku Bayoh

source: The Guardian
published: 16 November 2019

It’s been four and a half years since Sheku Bayoh died in Scottish police custody and now, for the first time, his family is allowing itself to hope they will get some answers.

“My brother was a much-loved father and family man and a well-liked member of his community,” said Kadijatu Johnson, Bayoh’s sister. “He didn’t deserve to die like this, and we as a family deserved better than to be treated in the way that we have been.”

Last week, after Scotland’s lord advocate confirmed that no charges would be brought against any of the nine police officers the family believe were involved, the Scottish government announced a rare, judge-led public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Bayoh’s death.

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